In my little corner of the world, the century old tradition of Halloween is still a relatively new custom. The first jack-o'-lanterns in Rhineland shop windows popped up sometime during the mid 1990s; and up to the early 2000s, public Halloween parties ouside of such naturally anglophile surroundings as universities' Anglistik/Amerikanistik departments happened to be a rather rare sight.

Rumours are that the feast transcended into the pop cultural mainstream mainly because of Germans' ongoing exposure to Halloween-themed tv show eps, movies, or comics. So I guess, it's no small wonder my friendly neighbourhood conservative newspaper, the Rheinische Post has once again started its annual "Hey, let's badmouth the nasty little cultural intruder" campaign.